Abstract
After contributing to the international Arabidopsis genome sequencing project, we are in the process of genome sequence analysis of a leguminous plant Lotus japonicus to understand the genetic system of legume species. L. japonicus is a typical model plant with the following characteristics: short regeneration time, diploidy (n=6) and estimated genome size (ca. 470 Mb) is small. A large number of ESTs have been accumulated and high-density linkage maps of all six chromosomes have been generated. Using the information on ESTs and cDNA markers of legume plants, genomic clones corresponding to the multiple seed points of the genome have been chosen as initial targets. As the accumulation of the seed sequences has progressed, clone selection by walking has also initiated. The sequence data, gene information and mapping information of L. japonicus are available at http://www.kazusa.or.jp/lotus/.
